Julianna Margulies talks ‘The Good Wife’, Working in Television and How Leaving L.A. Gave Her a “Different Perspective”

Julianna Margulies has had the good fortune of starring on not one, but two hit television series in her career. But it wasn’t like she was counting on another Emmy-winning role after ER.

“I truly had no expectations after ER,” she said in an interview with The Los Angeles Times. “For me, it was about finding the right roles. Television is such a fantastic medium for women, and in an industry obsessed with youth and celebrity television, it allows actresses to have these interesting characters to have a life to grow.”

She certainly found the role of a lifetime as Alicia Florrick on CBS’s The Good Wife. “There’s something attractive when you get to play a character who has been so sheltered from the reality of her life, to be able to climb out of that and find herself….I love that this network drama has a lead character who doesn’t actually talk that much,” she said. “Actors shy away from television because they worry about making it mundane and commonplace. But this was a character I could envision 10 years from now.”

Margulies doesn’t let the fame and success go to her head, despite having won two Emmys and a Golden Globe.

“I was a coat check girl, a bartender, a waitress. I stuffed envelopes in a real estate office,” she recalled. “I know what it’s like to struggle. At the end of the day I always felt: Were you kind? Were you truthful? Did you solve problems rather than cause problems? I’m not saying I never have a bad day, but it never bothers me. My assistant gets upset if we walk into a store and they don’t know who I am. I love it. It means I’m regular. For me as an actor, the well I draw on is being able to watch human behavior. I had good times in LA, but I felt lonely that I couldn’t see the world from a different perspective. I don’t want to be locked up in a little bubble.”